Tiny dolls' clothes

In message , Mary Fisher writes

If you type miniature patterns in on UK ebay it brings up some patterns. Shirley

What exactly are you looking for Mary? If you intend to scale down by knitting at a very fine gauge then there are "real people" patterns of an appropriate era available all over the show (if you know where to look). If you can give me some idea of the exact garments you want patterns for I'll see if I can point you to some appropriate online resources.

There certainly are miniature patterns for 1/12 scale but I've never seen many for free. Have a look at:

Those are both exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you very much :-)

I'm not worried about paying for anything I want, my problem will be choosing from the ranges!

I'll also bear your offer in mind. First, I have to re-build the dolls, Robyn wants to use my old ones but time, moth and mice have reduced them to heads, feet and a wire skeleton :-)

Mary

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Sounds like a really rewarding project Mary. I love dolls houses but can't afford the grand English models I really covet. I have a Sylvannian Families house for fun, one day I hope to have the time to make something "proper" for myself.

VP

Our older daughter and I started refurbishing it more than fifteen years ago for her daughter (now 18) but events overtook our lives and although all the materials (paper, paint, carpeting etc.) were there and prepared it had to be left. I was thrilled when middle son asked if his 11 year old could have it. I'm delighted that it's still in the family and won't be dumped.

I don't know what a Sylvannian house is. While we were in Wiltshire we went to a specialist store and looked at what was available. They're expensive and not as sturdily built as mine, there's also a sameness about them. Mine is 100% original, built with love from materials which were very scarce during the war. My godfather was a skilled plumber and used all sorts of oddments to build it. For instance, the baseboard had once been used as a board on which to mix concrete :-) The stairs (in their own stair wells with landings, not up the side of rooms as in most new houses) were made from a notice board advertising paint. The banisters are made from brass tubing. Many of the transoms are coloured or obscured glass and the windows are properly glazed too, with picture glass. The glory is the front door which has four diamonds of rose-coloured profiled glass lozenges. Unique indeed :-)

Uncle Bill also made most of the furniture for my house, it was up to date in those days but period now :-) Robyn wants to keep it as a war-time household so it will be a learning experience for her, researching period styles and fashions. No television for her scale house :-) She picked up an item and asked if it were a clock, we had to explain that it was a 'wireless' with a round loudspeaker.

Yes, make your own, it's the only way to have what you want!

Mary

Sylvanian Families is a brand of plastic houses that can be populated with little animals instead of dolls. I don't care much for the animals but their houses and furnishings (despite being plastic) are quite detailed. I have "Willow Hall" and a friend in Japan sends me furniture. It satisfies my desire to arrange tiny things into a pretty scene.

love that you're making the house war period - that's exactly theera of house I'd like to make. I hope you can share some photos alongthe way, especially when you've knitted up some tiny outfits. VP

For some wonderful tiny, tiny knitting, look here!

myself have FINALLY completed my first doll's size fair islesweater. Not perfect but pretty good, considering. Just found mycamera so will take a photo of it soon. Wendy A Knitting Fool in Connecticut

Well, I shall - but it's going to be a l-o-n-g project! This morning I was going to discard a by now very thin facecloth. I brought dozens of new, thick, facecloths from my Mum's so don't need to continue with out old ones any more.

Then I realised that although it was so thin it would make good scale towels for Marntlock* House (the dolls' house). I can see that I'm going to be spending my life in the next few months seeing how things could scale down appropriately

Mary

• my godfather inscribed a plate with this name over the front door, it's made up from the first three letters of my first name, the middle three from my middle name and the last three from my (maiden) last name: Mary Bentley Livock.

Yes please.

Mary

And carrying a 6" ruler (size of a dollshouse man) to assess relative size to 1/12th scale!!!

That's funny. I'm always looking for thin faceclothes, which are not sold much any more. I hate the thick ones. Maybe we should do an exchange!

I furnished a doll's house for my daughters when they were little. The house itself had been made for a nursery school by one of the teachers. It was very simple, with four rooms, stacked two over two. It was also more shallow than most doll houses, so that little hands could arrange the furniture without knocking things over.

I made sofas, beds, and chairs from an old set of painted wooden building blocks, of various shapes, that my daughters had outgrown. I used margarine tub lids (and similar), glued to blocks, as tables. I made lampshades from toothpaste caps.

Try locating a secondhand book called Doll's House needlecrafts (over 250 Projecs in 12th scale by Venus A. Dodge. ISBN 0 7153 1358 4

I should think it is still available either on ebay or from Amazon, I worked in 12th scale alot for a while, and still have this book and it is lovely.

cheers......Cher

Not for a 1940s Englishman, there were some but they were unusual. And especially so in our family :-(

Robyn's father (our No 2 son) is the tallest in our family. When we went to his passing out parade we couldn't see him, he was smaller than most of the others marching - even most of the girls were taller than he was. He's still not more than 5'8" until he dons his high heeled motorbike boots and helmet..

Our two oldest grandsons are 6' at 21 and they stick out like sore thumbs on family photographs :-) Spouse is 5'5".

Mary

I'll have a look for that, thank you.

Mary>

Now ordered from Amazon, thanks again.

Mary

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Barbara, try looking for baby facecloths. You can get packs of 8 or 10 for very little money at places like Target, Babies R Us, etc.

LauraJ

I think you'll find that the blue covered paperback which I have, and the hard back are exactly the same....you may not be able to get the knitting needles for some of the knitted items but two long darning needles will do.I used this idea very successfully for a long while until I bought some proper ones. I think the DH shop in warminster stocks these needles too.

Cher

I ordered a second hand book, the condition isn't relevant - in fact I'd like to think that the books I've bought new will one day be enjoyed by someone else :-)

Getting needles is no problem at all - Spouse makes them :-)

If you mean Warminster in Wilts, I went through there on Saturday but we didn't stop - I was on the back of son's big motorbike :-) I live in Yorkshire. What's the DH shop?

Mary

Take the Westbury road out to Warminster, and as you approach the traffic lights there is the old back road to Warminster off to your left, take that and as you eventually come back into the built up area and the 30zone, note the shape right hander bend, to go down into the town, take the turning (2nd) off of that bend to your left, up over a tiny incline across a mini roundabout, and it is just along there on your right, set back, used to be a green grocers at one time... if you get to the second mini roundabout with the army barracks off to your left and opposite you, then you've gone too far.

C